In countries where WFP operates, COVID-19 could push an additional 121 million people into acute food insecurity by the end of 2020. Considering that 149 million people were already acutely food insecure pre-COVID (including 12 million refugees), this would lead to a total of 270 million people facing acute food insecurity by the end of the year, an increase of more than 80 percent. Pre-COVID-19, the Middle East and North Africa had the highest number of acutely food insecure people – mainly due to conflict, displacement and economic crisis. Latin America and West Africa are expected to have the highest increase of additional people facing acute hunger due to COVID-19. In West Africa, the number of acutely food insecure people could more than double while in Latin America, the number of people with acute food insecurity could nearly triple. Countries of particular concern are those affected by protracted conflict or faced with other compounding shocks such as economic crisis, locust infestation, droughts or other disasters.

The costs of food baskets were affected 'severely' in 20 countries in Q2-2020, during which the COVID-19 pandemic has played a major role. Most notably, despite massive income losses, strong demand resulting from stockpiling in combination with disrupted trade flows led to steep increases in staple food prices in Tajikistan, Bangladesh, Nigeria, and Afghanistan.

This September update of the 2020 Global Report on Food Crises with a special focus on COVID-19 finds that a range of 101–104.6 million people in 27 countries are classified in Crisis or worse (IPC/CH Phase 3 or above) according to analyses carried out between March and September 2020, reflecting the peak situation in times of COVID-19 in countries.

At 135 million, the number of people in Crisis or worse (IPC/CH Phase 3 or above) in 2019 was the highest in the four years of the GRFC’s existence.